Jocelyn's blog

Apr. 18, 2007

An Eventful Easter

We decided, some time ago, that I would take the children to Newcastle for Easter and that Andrew would stay at home and paint the kitchen and hallway. Andrew had Thursday and Tuesday off as well, making it a very long weekend.

We headed off in the car at morning tea time to try and get a march on the traffic going north. As I was the only driver, we stopped south of Sydney for lunch so I could refresh myself and the kids could have a break. We really should have left it till the north of Sydney as when we got in the car an hour later, the traffic had built up and we spent an half an hour, bumper to bumper, only going to 20 kph! We finally got in by 4pm, Said hello to my Mum & family, and I collapsed.

The next day was Good Friday. It was quite eventful. Mark was wrestling with his Aunty and fell smack on the floor. He cried so hard with pain. It was swollen after a short time and we decided to take him to Emergency. Here I was thinking the worst, packing all the books I could for long waits.... well, for a holiday, we did very well. We just seemed to go from section to section without much of a wait. He is the proud owner of a small cast as he has a green stick fracture near his wrist. We went to the movies later on and saw the Mr Bean movie. Mark stayed behind and slept.

My sister, her husband and daughter arrived from Melbourne that evening, so now the house was filling up. Mark "slept" in with me for the weekend but the sleep time was broken for both of us.

Saturday was a girlie shop day and my brother arrived to complete our number. We had 12 of us in a three bedroom house - all living areas became bedrooms. The boys went off to the football game late in the day and we just had a quiet evening at home.

On Sunday, my bro-in-law staged an egg hunt at the house, our family went to church and then we all went to the Hunter Valley Gardens. I don't have the photos from this as I was snapping with my sister's camera. Hopefully, she'll send some to me soon and I can put them up.

The next day was my mum's brithday. We went out to catch the ferry from Newcastle to Stockton and walked around for a while. Stockton has nice beach areas so we stopped for a while, the kids stripped down to their underwear and waded in. It was a little bit hard to persuade Mark not to do this at the beginning but he resigned himself to playing in the sand. I think others could spot the southerners from a mile away as none of them would go in the water in such mild weather!

We went out for dinner to a bistro restaurant at a pub. The kids' meals were huge and hard to get through but they seemed to enjoy them. Mark certainly enjoyed his small bowl of ice cream with three scoops!

When we got back, Andrew phoned to ask if I wanted to stay an extra day - things were running behind on the painting front. We compromised and I came home late so the kids could just be put to bed that evening.

The house smelled of paint when we got in, as Andrew had applied the last coat on Tuesday afternoon. The paint work looked really nice and without the help of his parents and brother, he would not have made it! Although the paintwork looked nice, the house looked like a bomb had hit it. It took a couple of days to clean up, sort out and move back all the things!

I think we have caught our breath now...

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Mar. 6, 2007

Mark's Birthday - 5 March

Posted in Homeschool life

When I stopped and thought about today, I realised something would have to give. We had our regular lot of work to do in the morning, piano lessons straight after lunch and then the family scheduled for an afternoon tea birthday celebration.

I was doing some card making the night before, so I left everything out. The dining table was filled with stamps, paper, pens, card stock, blotting sheets, the works! We ate breakfast at the table out on the deck and then the kids had a morning of creating. They had a card to do for Mark's birthday, one for Mrs Gwynne, a lady in our church having her 99th birthday on the 6th of March and then the card to do for me. They had a great time and wrote some lovely messages in the cards.

The birthday trio - Mark first (5 March) then Amy (6 March) then me (7 March)

After that, we made Mark's birthday cake together and started to get dinner organised. I knew it would be a rush later in the day, so got it done in the morning.

The piano lessons came and went and then there was about an hour to get ready for the family. All of Andrew's family live in Canberra and he is one of 5 children. In all, there's 14 grandchildren so it doesn't take much to have a party!

I got the boys busy doing tasks like cleaning the glass slide door, taking out the rubbish, sweeping the deck, chopping up fruit etc according to what they could manage. Adam (5) was outside wiping down a table and then I put on a new tablecloth. I was outside for 2 minutes at the most. I came back inside to the wails of the older boys, who were busy in the kitchen... Mark was there with red hands and a red mouth. It looked like his mouth was bleeding profusely and that he had put his hands up to his mouth and they got covered in blood too. I was really freaking out. As I got closer to him, I realised that it was red food colouring!

I had been going backwards and forwards from the spice draw all day and he chose this moment to take that attractive little red bottle into the front room, take off the lid on the lounge and drink some. There was red colouring all over the lounge chairs but thankfully, none on the carpet.

By this time, everyone was due in half an hour. I got Stephen to take Mark down to the newly cleaned bathroom with some heavy duty grime remover to clean him up. I took the lounge cover off and out the laundry, ripped the cushion cover up and tried to blot out the huge red stain. In the end, the whole thing made its way into the laundry to be dealt with later. After about 20 minutes, the mess was under control and Mark looked presentable and our first visitor arrived early.

We had a lovely celebration and Mark enjoyed his construction site cake - complete with chocolate licorice logs which could be consumed...

Amy Gwynne joined us for the birthday celebration and was staying to have dinner with us. It would be a birthday celebration for all three of us.

Andrew was originally going to take Amy home but had a meeting scheduled and needed to leave for that. We got things cleaned up and then all the boys loaded into the car and we dropped Amy off. We got to see a lovely sunset on the way too.

The boys all went to bed when they got back, Mark was asleep in the car so I just transferred him. I kept Stephen up and he helped me hang the washing on the line at 9pm. I had a load of clothes that hadn't made it out earlier plus the lounge cover, towels etc from the clean up to go on in a new load.

At about 9.30pm, I finally got to sit down with a cuppa, with the house quiet and all things in some semblance of order.

Although the day was full-on, I was thankful that we had the day the way it was. The boys still had an active, busy day and were doing lots of worthwhile things. We all chipped in and got things done.

When I was chatting with my mother in law about the morning, she kindly reminded me that this was the beauty of homeschooling, you can have those sorts of days.

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Feb. 16, 2007

A lovely time down at the coast (5-12 Feb)

Posted in Homeschool life

I've been getting a little bit behind (so here's the next entry for you, Natty)

Our family went down to the south coast for a week to take in the sun and the surf. We usually wait until all the schools go back and then head off as the weather is still great and the rates are much cheaper for the rental!

Here's just a few snaps from the holiday. There's more but I think they were downloaded on Andrew's computer so I'll have to hunt around for them.

Mark takes off to catch some waves ~~~~~~~

Hmmm...maybe not... The main beach at Tuross was lovely to walk along though.

Mark helps to bury Stephen.

We had dinner down by the water on Friday night. It was lovely to sit out by the river and just enjoy our surroundings.

The river and lake at Tuross.

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Feb. 14, 2007

Learning to mow...3 February

Posted in Homeschool life

Years ago, we had American friends in Canberra who homeschooled their children. I remember their boy being 9 when he was taught to mow the lawn. Our eldest is now 9, actually 10 soon, so we thought it was time for the inauguration.

Stephen found the going a little tough in places as the front hadn't been done for a while and it was a bit clumpy in patches. He did well and will be prevailed upon again soon, I think.

We got back from our holidays to find that a lot of rain had fallen and everything is lush and green again.

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Jan. 1, 2007

Our trip down south

Posted in Homeschool life

We had a lovely break. The trip down was quite good. We were about an hour out of Melbourne when we descended from the hills into a large, open plain. The fields on either side were glowing yellow, the sky overhead was a dull grey but we were at the apex of the hill, looking down into a valley of angry, dark, storm clouds which were about to break upon us at any moment. It was a little surreal actually, to know we were about to be swallowed up by the storm.

That rain lasted, on and off until Boxing Day. Christmas Day was a cool 16 degrees and we had a nice roast lunch. (Who says we don't bake in summer

) After lunch, we took advantage of the free public transport and went around Melbourne. We went into Fitzroy Gardens, looked at Cook's Cottage, the conservatory, the model Tudor Village and just rambled across the lawns. I'll try and get some photos up soon as I took some good ones.

An old English mail box.

A close-up of Cooks' Cottage

Flowers for Mum

Anyway, we eventually made it back to the city streets and caught a tram to St Kilda. Quite a few pubs and shops were open along the streets. We even walked past a few "establishments" that had distinct "pommy" accents emanating from them. Of course! The "Barmy Army", Poms out here for the cricket, had to have somewhere to go on Christmas Day.

We didn't really mind that Shane Warne had grabbed his 700th wicket the day before as it was a horrible day to be at the ground. Most commentators spoke in the language of contrasts - the thrill and excitement of the record amidst the hypothermia. Day 1 had rain delays, chilling winds and seat allocations. On Day 2, we had a choice of seats in our section (so we went undercover near a replay screen), much milder weather with no rain delays and got to see two batsman score 150. So, we did enjoy our day very much. We left Adam & Mark behind with our friends and they had a nice day too.

Our friends live in Vermont, SE of Melbourne. They have a huge house which takes up the whole block. When you walk out the back, there's the fence!! They have teenage children so it isn't a big deal to them. They certainly had more than enough room to house us and their family. Not far from the house is a bike track that goes toward Mt Dandenong. I went for bike rides on three days. Our host, Andrew (lovely name, that) goes for 20 km bike rides each day. When we joined him, Andrew V, Andrew J, Stevie and I went for a 10 km ride on the first day. Andrew V, Stevie and I went for a 19 km ride the second day. Andrew V and I went for a 12 km ride the third day. After that, the cricket intervened and there wasn't any more time for rides. It was picturesque with a little babbling stream running through the middle of the area.

After this, we went and stayed with my sister who lives one hour NW of Melbourne. She has a 2 bedroom house on several acres of land so it was a contrast! She has one daughter, aged 7 so it was great for the kids to reacquaint themselves with eachother. On the Friday, we went and visited my brother (who lives closer to Melbourne) and then went to St Kilda and Luna Park. My sister was very generous and paid for the expedition.

At the front of Luna Park

On "The Pharaoh's Curse" with Zac. I'm toward the middle there with the Aqua coloured watch on.

A tamer ride... the ferris wheel goes nice and high and lets you look out over St Kilda beach.

My sister also took me for a ride on her Vespa one day.

Meanwhile, Andrew was off dirt bike riding with my brother-in-law for the day. They had a great time out bush and Andrew survived with no broken bones. My sister then took me out to dinner and the guys looked after the troupe.

The next day, we headed for home. We had a smooth run until Gundagai. I was driving, no warning light came on and we ran out of petrol 20 metres from the bowser. Thankfully, Andrew had the presence of mind to know what was going on, told me to put it in neutral and coast to the pump. We are thankful it didn't happen anywhere else!

Between Gundagai and Murrumbateman, there was a lot of hail on the sides of the road. It almost looked like snow because there was so much of it. We were thankful that we missed that storm too.

So... we got home late on Saturday night and enjoyed sleeping in our own beds.

Looks like we brought the rain with us too but that's okay by us.

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Nov. 29, 2006

A Science Spelling Lesson

Posted in Homeschool life

Stephen is at the end of the Spalding Spelling list now. One of his words today was "appendicitis". So, apart from having a dictionary beside us so he can look up these new words, we also had a little science lesson.

I actually had to "google" this as none of the anatomy books I had at home had enough information in them about what happens when you have appendicitis.

So, yes, we only got 4 spelling words done today but we stopped and learnt a little more about the human body.

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Nov. 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in Homeschool life

Crafty Turkeys made by the Luptons

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'm sure this seems strange to some of you, after all, I'm Australian and this is an American holiday. I was talking with another friend recently and we both shared about how much we like this holiday. It is so rich in meaning. The pilgrims had a meal to thank God for all His blessings to them. Surely we can do that too? What a great thing to emulate! So, we are joining with some others later today for a Thanksgiving meal. This morning, we are reading Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgleish and then thinking about what we can be thankful for.

I'm also in charge of the baked leg ham so thought I'd include the recipe here. It comes from a homeschooling family who are now back in the US.

Port/Wine Leg Ham

1 pre-cooked leg ham on bone (16lbs, 6 kg)
25-30 whole cloves
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1 cup (packed) brown sugar (dark)
2 cups Apple Juice
2 cups Tawny Port
2 cups pitted whole dates
2 cups dried figs
2 cups dried prunes

Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
Remove skin & trim fat to 1/4 inch
With a sharp knife, score the fat in a diamond pattern
In pan, add cloves
Smear mustard everywhere
Sprinkle sugar all over
Pour apple juice in pan (not over the top)
Bake for 1 and 1/2 hours, basting frequently

Combine port, dates, figs and prunes in a small bowl
Add mixture to pan after 1 and 1/2 hours of ham baking
Bake for a further 30 mins bastling frequently
Remove fruit and set aside (reheat at last moment)

Ham can be sliced and presented with fruit (reheated) on a platter OR
Ham can be presented whole in a dish with fruit on the side (to be carved at the table).

This is my first time trying this recipe so hopefully it will turn out well. I have tasted one done like this before and it was fantastic.

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Aug. 31, 2006

A "sick" school day - 30 August

Posted in Homeschool life

Today, I had 3 out of 4 children sick. Even though they had heavy heads and runny noses, they still felt well enough to do some things. I pulled out a Jim Weiss CD and we listened to "A Christmas Carol" and then I put on a Moody Science DVD, called "God of the Atom". They loved both of these things and it kept their minds off their troubles.

In the afternoon, I sat down and made some greeting cards. By the time I had out all the papers and stamps, Zach had joined me. He was the one that was well. Adam, still a little sore and sorry, came and joined us. We sat there for about an hour and had some fun. I made 5 cards, Zach made 3 and Adam made 2. We then wrote on a few straight away and they are ready to send!

I was dreading this day when it began but by the end of it, thought it was a nice, slower paced day with lots of gems in it.

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Jul. 7, 2006

Art with Liz - 4 July

Posted in Homeschool life

In Australia, the 4th of July is just another day but this time, we made it special. On this beautiful, sunny, winter day, we did some painting with our friend, Liz.

Applying the masking fluid to the paper.

Once dry, (we has lunch while we were waiting), we painted in the rest of the picture with watercolours.

Liz, cousin Abi and the boys hard at work.

Once the painting dries off, you peel back the masking fluid and the tree is completely white against the background. We chose to highlight our trees with some brown paint just to give them a nice "finish".

Liz's picture

My finished product

Stevie (top) Zac (bottom)

Adam (top) and Abi (bottom)

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May. 11, 2005

The Solar System - May 2005

Posted in Homeschool life

We started Exploring Creation with Astronomy by Jeannie Fulbright last year and only used it for terms 2 and 3. I got a bit burnt out doing such a full-on Science program as well as History. After some pleadings, we have returned to finish it off in 2006. This is the solar system that we made last year and pinned up to the ceiling. The first attempt included this huge balloon as the sun. It was more to scale (when the balloon was fully inflated!!)

Close-up of Jupiter and Saturn

The new sun was the light in the kids' bedroom. It gave a great glow but wasn't the right size AND they couldn't read in their room either...

All but Pluto. We actually did do a Pluto but now (in 2006) it seems like it's a good idea that it got cut off in this photo!

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